Olivia Colman hopes to be the favourite in race for Oscars glory

Olivia Colman hopes to be the favourite in race for Oscars glory

British star Olivia Colman will go head-to-head with Hollywood veteran Glenn Close when the Oscars are handed out on Sunday.

The Favourite actress is nominated for her role as a cantankerous Queen Anne in the prickly period drama, which is in the running for 10 prizes, tying Alfonso Cuaron’s black and white Roma for the most nods.

Colman, who recently picked up a Bafta for her performance, will compete against SAG award winner Close, who is nominated for The Wife.

She will also be up against Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born, Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Yalitza Aparicio for Roma.

Olivia Colman with her Bafta (Ian West/PA)

This year marks Close’s seventh nomination by the Academy but she is yet to win.

Colman’s co-stars Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are both nominated in the supporting category but face stiff competition from If Beale Street Could Talk star Regina King, who is considered the front runner in the category, as well as Amy Adams for Vice and Marina de Tavira for Roma.

Regina King (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Another British star in the running for a trophy is Christian Bale, who is nominated in the best actor category for his role as Dick Cheney in Vice.

He has a fierce rival in Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody, who is riding a wave of momentum after his wins at the Baftas and SAG awards.

Also nominated in the category is Bradley Cooper for his directorial debut A Star Is Born, Viggo Mortensen for Green Book and Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate.

Mahershala Ali is widely tipped to take home the best supporting actor prize, after wins at the Baftas, Golden Globes and SAGs.

Rami Malek with his Bafta for Bohemian Rhapsody (Ian West/PA)

He is nominated alongside Richard E Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sam Elliott for A Star Is Born, Adam Driver for BlacKkKlansman and Sam Rockwell for Vice.

If the favourites of Close, Malek, King and Ali prevail in all their categories it will be the most diverse group of actors to win in Oscars history, with only one white winner.

A total of eight films are nominated for the best picture prize: Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star Is Born and Vice.

Mahershala Ali (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Black Panther is the first comic book film to be nominated for the the biggest prize of the night, while Roma is the first Netflix film in the running.

If it wins it would also be the first foreign language film to do so.

The film’s director, the Mexican auteur Cuaron, is in the running for the best director prize, alongside Cooper for A Star Is Born, Adam McKay for Vice, Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite, Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War and Spike Lee, who is nominated for his first directing Oscar for BlacKkKlansman.

The ceremony will be without a host for the first time in three decades after Kevin Hart stepped down amid a row over homophobic tweets.

Instead the show will rely on an array of celebrity presenters, including Daniel Craig, Jennifer Lopez and Chadwick Boseman.

Alfonso Cuaron (Paige Young/PA)

There will also be performances of all the tracks nominated for the best original song prize despite early indications only two would be allowed to take to the stage.

Lady Gaga is set to reunite with Bradley Cooper for a performance of Shallow from A Star Is Born, while Kendrick Lamar is expected to perform All The Stars from Black Panther.

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (Ian West/PA)

Jennifer Hudson is due to perform I’ll Fight from the documentary RBG and David Rawlings and Gillian Welch will perform When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings from The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs.

It was recently announced Bette Midler will perform The Place Where Lose Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns.

The 91st Academy Awards will be handed out at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on February 24.

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